Bored to Death Creator Jonathan Ames Gives Screenwriting Tips

Jonathan Ames has written short stories, newspaper columns, and novels in his over twenty years as a writer and author.

In our Media Beat interview, he revealed how he added another title to his resume: screenwriter and executive producer of HBO’s Bored to Death, a series based on his own short story about a writer turned private investigator.

“I read a number of scripts and I just quickly gleaned that you want to make the descriptions short and to the point and the dialogue lively,” Ames told mediabistro.com founder Laurel Touby. “I did learn as I went along to begin scenes late and end early. You don’t want people walking across the room a lot and ringing doorbells. You know, all that’s gonna chew up screen time and get thrown out anyway. It was just sort of adapting to a form, like adapting to a poetic form like a sonnet. What’s another one? A siesta. No, that’s a nap.”

Watch the full video for more tips (and humor) about Ames’ writing process and to find out why, despite his success, he’s still not ready to settle down.